Mark Oliver Everett of Eels Has a Favorite T-Shirt

0:05Blake Howard: Hey folks, it's Jeremy. How you doing? Are we hanging in there? I just turned my heat on this week. I got heat in my house because it's finally getting cold. So I'm in a good mood. Believe it or not, I'm actually one of those people that like, talked about this in pots before where you have a house cardigan or a house hoodie and I just kind of keep it in the house and I throw it on and I walk around in my little house shoes and I make my coffee and I wear my house cardigan and I'm feeling good. And I'm usually, lately I've been listening to Eel's Cookie Happen, which, but Mark Oliver Everett is the guest this week.

0:42Blake Howard: So very, very excited for this. I actually was re-listening to a lot of his catalog before we started recording this pod and it still really hits. I got Electroshock Blues which is an incredible record through, I don't know if any of you remember there was like Sony BMG and the BMG Columbia House Record Clubs in the late 90s maybe I'm dating myself I don't care but that's how I'd gotten that record and I had no idea what Mark Oliver Everett was writing about at the time I just wanted more Eels records Beautiful Freak still hits and all these years later I finally got to sit down with E himself so this was special Eels just put out their 16th studio album, Cookie Happened.

1:26Blake Howard: And it's a great record. And E tells me he was already a few songs in before it occurred to him he was even making a record. So we get into that. We get into the little notepads that he keeps all over his house where he keeps his song ideas. The Bob Dylan cassette he brought with him from Virginia. And what happened when a song he wrote to get himself through something ends up doing the same for somebody else. Hello. We also talk about the vintage Eels tease I found in Tokyo. that we're going for quite a bit of money. And when I told E about it, we get into the t-shirt that he swears by, which I thought I knew it.

1:58Blake Howard: Turns out I just needed a little more specific. Very excited you're here. Mark Oliver Everett, aka E from Eels is with us. Let's go. I have listened and read interviews with you for, I don't know, what feels like a large part of my life. Wow. I mean, serious. So I was in shock when I got the heads up to have you on the show. Because what? This is your 16th record. Yeah.

2:28Mark Oliver Everett: Which is... I mean, that's just counting the Eagles records. And there's the two E records before it.

2:34Blake Howard: Yeah. But you put a new record out. What is release week? What does release time feel like for you around your house? It's kind of the worst week of the year.

2:48Mark Oliver Everett: I mean, honestly, yeah, I kind of dread. I can't wait. I mean, it's still going on. It's been over a week now and it's only getting worse. It's, you know, it's just, I'm just desperate for time. You know, there's so many things that are falling by the wayside in my life because I don't have enough time right now. And then, you know, eventually it all calms down and then you're like, wait, where'd everybody go?

3:12Blake Howard: Yeah, I was going to say, what are you saying no to time-wise? What does the world of E feel like when you're not doing press?

3:19Mark Oliver Everett: Well, I mean, there's a lot of day-to-day stuff. Well, I also, like last week, I had a really complicated time because I was on KCRW, which is way across town for me. It's on the other side of California, basically. And I was just about to start the hour and 15-minute drive to a live KCRW interview for like an hour. And my car, for the first time, broke down. what yeah and i said i barely got there in time and uh and then it's just made all the next like three days you know a bit of a nightmare time-wise dealing with my car you know on top of doing a zillion interviews and everything you know so that but now that's fixed that feels a lot better

4:06Blake Howard: are you like a classic car guy what's the car no i used to be uh i'm not anymore i got tired of the

4:11Mark Oliver Everett: headaches and uh you know i got i have a nine-year-old kid once you have a kid you have to have an suv yep and a modern one that you can count on but you know it's a hybrid at least yeah but that's you know i will say it because it's a hybrid is why it broke down oh it was the hybrid battery and i suddenly found myself wishing it wasn't a hybrid yeah i have i have a almost

4:36Blake Howard: nine-year-old my daughter will be uh she'll be nine in december and then my my son is four and so i have resigned myself into having any type of you know cool or fun car my car is like yeah cool cars are over for us yeah right do you um do you what your kids have any say on like the music

4:55Mark Oliver Everett: that's played in the car yeah uh it i mean i only have the one kid and and he is um you know everything has to be his idea i don't i don't ever try to force anything he does get exposed to a lot of stuff because there's a lot of days where he doesn't care what's on in the car and so i'm you know listening to like the beatles channel or something and and that i think is creeping in on him you know subconsciously maybe but otherwise he's he's picking what do you want us to hear i'm

5:22Blake Howard: glad you said that so in in my car uh my car is quote you know air quote broken and so the only station that works is, yeah, the Beatles channel on Sirius. And it's been interesting because if they're in their mom's car,

5:36Mark Oliver Everett: she'll play Taylor Swift or whatever, Phoebe Bridgers or whatever they're listening to.

5:40Blake Howard: And I'm like, sorry guys, it's just the Beatles. But my son is really, really into the Beatles. That's my dream. Right?

5:51Mark Oliver Everett: But I don't dare push it. It'll blow up in my face. I just wait to see see what happens.

5:59Blake Howard: Well, I'll always tell them like whenever there's a song on, I like, you know, and this is where I felt like, oh shit. I was like, maybe I'm like a real dad now where I'll be like, guys, so this was a, this was a John song. And, you know, during this time, you know, and so now a song will come on and my son will be like, dad, is this a John song or a Paul song?

6:18Mark Oliver Everett: I'm so jealous because there's nothing, there's nothing I know more about than the Beatles. I could just be such a blowhard authority about it with my son. And I haven't had the opportunity so far.

6:30Blake Howard: Yeah. You know, you've had such like a long career in making music. You know, how much do you ever listen to your music and look back and be like, oh, I was listening to this during that time? Or I mean, because now I feel like you can even reference yourself and your own work.

6:45Mark Oliver Everett: When you're working on music, you're not really listening to music. I'm not anyway. I mean, there's no time. I'm just putting all my time and energy into making music. And also, when you're done working on music all day and night, the last thing you want to do to relax is listen to music. Your ears are fried. That doesn't really factor in as far as I can tell.

7:07Blake Howard: Well, do you have an unwind sort of thing to kind of disconnect while you're working on music, or is it super intensive?

7:13Mark Oliver Everett: What I listen to the most lately is the Sirius XM Sinatra channel. Because it's the most, it's, well, actually there's two. Okay. There's one called, they both have great names. One's seriously, like Sirius XM, seriously Sinatra. Okay. And the other one is Perfectly Frank. Yeah. And so that, for me, the reason I, it's the only thing I can handle having been working on music so much lately. It's just for the, for the like palate cleanser, you know, I just. Yeah. It's the thing that I'm not feeling any sort of like influence from that I'm conscious of. It's just like, ah, just something to have on and not get too invested.

8:00Mark Oliver Everett: Although I am a big Sinatra fan, but it doesn't have the same thing. It doesn't threaten to, I don't aspire to make like that style of music, you know?

8:10Blake Howard: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for me, I almost always have a record on at some point in the house. but lately I've wanted to have something on that I didn't really know was on and I just got back from Tokyo uh like less than a week ago and a couple of my friends were like oh you need to be listening to like Japanese ambient music and so I've really fallen down a rabbit hole lately with just like you know weird little sort of happy ambient that sounds like a video game all around

8:38Mark Oliver Everett: my house I do have the uh turntable in my kitchen and I do have a lot of vinyl I'm in my kitchen right now and I'm sitting amongst piles of vinyl that I, you know, that's a nice thing to do like during lunch or dinner or something. And that's almost always some sort of palate cleanser for the most part too, for me, it's usually something very old and has nothing to do with music today.

9:02Blake Howard: Yeah. I mean, I feel like for me, I really want the work of listening to music. So it's like, I don't want to listen to a song or a playlist. I want to listen to an entire album, you know, and like even with so with cookie happen right like i was like okay i don't want to hear the single i don't want to i don't want whatever the that stuff that someone or a label wants to tell me i want the entire record from start to finish and i want to listen to it in a single sitting and i don't know like when you were writing music do you ever feel like that's how you want people

9:34Mark Oliver Everett: to experience it or is it just like yeah i mean you know i do it just in case that's how they experience it. I mean, cause that, you know, I, I still like put a lot of thought into sequencing and, you know, trying to make it work as, as a group of songs in order. But, you know, I also, I totally understand, like I enjoy, you know, Spotify and whatever the streamers and how amazing it is that you can dial up any song in history practically. Although, although a lot of my favorites, I still am not able to dial up, but, uh, you know, for the most part you can. And, you know, it's nice to just, you know, kick back and listen to a playlist of your favorites.

10:13Blake Howard: Yeah. I mean, I have a sleep playlist that I'll put on when I'm trying to, like, not have a panic attack on an airplane. But that's about it.

10:19Mark Oliver Everett: Well, that's a good idea. Yeah. Hopefully it's not an Eels album.

10:23Blake Howard: There's an era of Eels that I listen to that I feel is, like, extremely calm and relaxing.

10:29Mark Oliver Everett: Well, we do have a song called I Need Some Sleep.

10:32Blake Howard: Yeah. Yeah. But your, your record and your cattle, your catalog as a whole, I feel like it is very, um, it's, you know, I recently lost my father a couple of years ago and I think there's stuff that I'll go into and listen to that kind of is very calming and soothing despite, um, you know, the, the sort of like pain of the world. And I really look to music to kind of get me through that. Like, I'm curious, like whenever you're writing, you know, because you've also experienced so much stuff yourself do you ever feel like hey this is this is for people to to get through it

11:03Mark Oliver Everett: i don't think that occurs to me at the time of writing and it's it it was kind of a surprise to me when that became like a byproduct and i'm doing it for myself and and then but it is it's great it's such an amazing thing it's like magic you know that people you stop you on the street and say how much a song or an album or something helped them personally it's it's like wow i was just trying to help myself but i'm really i'm really glad it helped you too makes me feel great

11:33Blake Howard: yeah i mean i because i i feel like sometimes with certain artists sometimes they might feel trapped in the emotional state that their their listeners and fans put them in so like you know because it sounds like you know there's a lot of happiness on this record even though that it's uh you know i mean it's it's about appreciating something you know even though it ends you know in your words, it's, it's nice and comforting. And so I get that listening to happy eels is for me just as important as listening to, you know, grief eels.

12:02Mark Oliver Everett: I'm a pretty happy guy these days. I'm, I've gotten fairly good at looking at the reality of life and, you know, figuring out what to accept as a reality that I can't change and what to work on to try to change and that kind of stuff. So I've become, you know, really grateful about the good things in my life.

12:23Blake Howard: Yeah, what are the good things, if you wouldn't mind sharing?

12:25Mark Oliver Everett: Well, I mean, I'm one of the luckiest people on earth in terms of I get to do what I would want to do anyway for a living. I'm still amazed that I got to make one album, let alone all these albums, and I'm still doing it. It's incredible, and I know that's not the case for everybody. you know so and you know when i get tired when i'm you know i'm complaining about oh release week is album release week is the worst week of the year and everything i'm also constantly reminding myself isn't it great that i have a job that anyone cares about talking about it with me you know that's that's unusual too you know so that's that's a big thing and then you know my son and my dogs and I love being at home with all of them and it's uh it's all good is being you know content

13:15Blake Howard: and happy is that something that because as you were you were explaining it sounded like that was

13:19Mark Oliver Everett: something that's maybe a little bit more new for you I mean it's there's been ups and downs obviously over many years and um it's I think it slowly got better for me just because of always trying to pay attention to like okay how what's the stuff I should be sweating over and what's the stuff that isn't that big a deal and you get older and it becomes like a cumulative process

13:43Blake Howard: where you can start to see the results you know yeah yeah i i also like i don't know if you ever feel like this but there are certain things that i also you know it sounds weird that i'm saying it this way but there that i almost prefer is frustrating because then i can complain about it and i don't feel bad about complaining about it yeah i get it well like you know i mean just like I really love bad TV and like bad movies and bad coffee and you know in a weird way it's cool because also if you want to nitpick it and complain about it like it's not you know I'm not hurting anyone you know and then I can feel good and whine and be a little shit and then get back to reality yeah right yeah like I don't know do you have any uh is that ever happened with you Are there things that you, you know, sometimes people talk about like hate watch or hate listen to.

14:35Blake Howard: And I wouldn't use the word hate, but like, do you ever find yourself getting into that? And you're like, yeah, this is bad, but I kind of want it that way.

14:41Mark Oliver Everett: Well, you know, the first thing that came to mind when you said hate watch was, you know, when the Timothy Chalamet, Bob Dylan movie came out. I sat down to hate watch it. I was like, OK, this could be fun, you know. And to my shock, I liked it.

14:58Blake Howard: No, really?

14:59Mark Oliver Everett: Yeah. I thought he did a great job. I couldn't believe it of all things playing Bob Dylan. I thought he did a great job.

15:05Blake Howard: I mean, I will be honest with you. It is a pretty good movie. But when someone mentions Bob Dylan, it's one of my favorite things to talk about too. Because to be honest, you're kind of in this world now where there's so many different eras and experiences of your music. But Dylan's music where I'm like, well, no, no, no, no. Don't come in here saying this is your favorite record because this is the best record because this was going on. you know and i like i really love that type of like bar room talk you know but dylan is like like i'm just like look new morning is the best dylan record oh that's my favorite what yeah

15:41Mark Oliver Everett: amazing because that's not a common opinion it's not which is why i love to throw it out there

15:46Blake Howard: that's my favorite dylan record okay wait why is it your favorite dylan record i hear your take

15:51Mark Oliver Everett: partly because like when i first moved from virginia to la in my early 20s i had like a really miserable three years you know where i nothing i was getting doors slammed in my face in the music business and i was just working crummy jobs i didn't like and um i had a cassette of uh new morning and uh you know i had taped it off of somebody's vinyl in virginia and brought with me and i would i would i was just playing that a lot during that period and it was really comforting during that period and i just i just and that's that's an album that i like all the way through you know yeah and i wouldn't i wouldn't say like oh it's his best album it's just my favorite and maybe because it just has such a personal connection to me yeah i would probably have to say blood on the tracks is kind of the one we could all agree on is maybe the the greatest

16:44Blake Howard: one i i think you're right you know i mean i i because i like new morning because it's it's this like rebirth because you know self-portrait was just shat on so bad but that stuff sounds good to me now it does right yeah yeah but like you know bob johnson who was for listeners producer new morning um i mean there were so many songs that were re-recorded you know the the the title sequence was changed everything was just like altered up until the last minute and you know and also day of the locusts like i just it's such a fuck you you know i mean and and i it's like

17:21Mark Oliver Everett: rebellious but really beautiful and sweet also did you see that only recently unearthed footage of them recording the man in me yeah god that was fantastic i wish there was more footage from those session.

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18:51Blake Howard: That's get bezel.com. All right. All right. Back to the show.

18:59Blake Howard: well and like i'm one of those like idiots that i kind of feel like some of the best music ever was basically just recorded in you know the early 70s and for sure yeah because you had this sort of limitation of technology as well as for me the advancement for me it's like 70 and 71 and

19:19Mark Oliver Everett: then it starts to get dodgy in 72 and by 73 it's kind of over for the most with a lot of it with a

19:26Blake Howard: lot of exceptions but yeah yeah no i hear you but like that that for me like so i always will come back to that and i think you know arguing over music for me is still the most fun ever because you know the music i like now there's a lot of it that i probably would have said was awful like

19:45Mark Oliver Everett: you know five or ten years ago i love dylan's new album what do you think about that oh

19:52Blake Howard: okay i think artists are allowed to evolve i don't think it was phoned in the way a lot of people were like oh bob dylan like he doesn't even care anymore it's like no i i feel like you know the latest one well yeah i mean so are you talking about shadow kingdom right no or rough and rowdy ways yeah that's what i'm talking about oh okay yeah that i mean that was that was a while ago but yes yeah i mean that was like what was that the first record after the Nobel? I don't know, but it had I Contain Multitudes on it.

20:17Mark Oliver Everett: Which, for me, is one of his greatest songs ever. Yeah. And he's, you know, he's like 85 or something, and it's like, you know, remember in the 80s he put out all these albums that were critically drubbed, and he should have said, like, yeah, it's the 80s. Wait till my 80s. I'm gonna get really good then.

20:38Blake Howard: Right?

20:39Mark Oliver Everett: You like my spot-on Dylan imitation? Yeah, it's quite good.

20:43Blake Howard: You know, because I I remember everyone was getting all up in arms over Murder Most Fell. And I was just like, I don't know.

20:50Mark Oliver Everett: Yeah, that one's not my favorite. It's a 17-minute song. Yeah, I'm not mad at it. But I don't know. I think that album is quite good.

21:00Blake Howard: Yeah. See, okay. Do you realize that your catalog, there are people that have similar conversations over this?

21:07Mark Oliver Everett: That blows my mind, yeah.

21:08Blake Howard: But I mean, it's cool, right? I mean, that's got to be a good feeling.

21:11Mark Oliver Everett: Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I think people have conversations where it's like, oh, they're too into it and they're looking too closely, which is exactly what you and I are doing right now with Bob Dylan. So I just try to remind myself, well, I do it too.

21:25Blake Howard: Yeah. I mean, because, so do you remember like the record clubs like BMG and all these things where you're like, okay, so I think it was Electroshock Blues was a record I got from like one of the record clubs. It might have been like, I don't know. Wow.

21:42Mark Oliver Everett: I'm so old that one of my records was on one of those. Amazing.

21:47Blake Howard: Well, because that record was 98? Yeah, 98. And I remember getting that record and getting just obsessed with it. But also, for the record, being completely oblivious to the stuff you were singing about on that record. I mean, Elizabeth on the bathroom floor, I'm not asking you to revisit these things. There's stuff in there. You know, your record too at that time, I mean, it was like this really fun and exciting, beautiful record. And it was only until way later when again, my friends and I are having goofy conversations at a bar and we're talking about favorite records and I mention it and they're like, what the fuck?

22:25Blake Howard: Because a lot of other people, they just come in and they're like, oh, I love Beautiful Freak because or I heard something on the Shrek soundtrack or whatever. And it's like, no fam, I want to get into it with your catalog. Wow. but I mean, shoot nannies is still for many people's. I think it's, it's just a pretty flawless album,

22:46Mark Oliver Everett: but I thought we thought that's kind of the one that's not considered one of the better ones. See,

22:52Blake Howard: I mean, you got to hang out in my circle. You come coming out with us one night and we can all sit and, and you can, you can correct everybody's hot takes, but, but cookie happen is a thing that I've listened to that record. Now I'm on my fifth full listen and it's, it's really, really good. and it's just it's fun it feels like you know there's there's like more humor in it and like again correct me if all these things if need be or push back but it's just like i put it on i mean because that for listeners the album opens up with a song called clobber and it just fucking hits you and it's it's just it's it's good in it but it feels like you you were having fun doing this like this wasn't like somebody came knocking on your door and said hey it's record time yeah i

23:34Mark Oliver Everett: I didn't really even realize I was making a record until a few songs in. I started to see, oh, they're piling up. This must be a record.

23:41Blake Howard: Yeah. I mean, what was the first song you recorded for that where you were like, oh, shit, I'm making a record?

23:46Mark Oliver Everett: Well, I guess, you know, like whenever you finish whatever the first one is, is when it starts to occur to you, like maybe I'm working on a record. because I usually end up doing it too soon, meaning before anyone's said, hey, is it time for you to get in there and make something? Usually I've already handed it in before that question even comes my way. That's nice.

24:13Blake Howard: That's not a common thing in the recording industry.

24:17Mark Oliver Everett: Yeah, I definitely haven't had an issue with output so far.

24:23Blake Howard: when you're when you're trying to make music or making it like does it happen on accident or do you because i feel like for some artists you're almost scheduling time to make your art on purpose

24:33Mark Oliver Everett: yeah i mean both things happen you know you can just be struck by inspiration when you're in the middle of doing something else and that can often be kind of a pain in the ass because you're like i don't want to deal with that right now but if i don't it'll go away you know and that can And that can often be like a really good song or something too, you know, when it strikes you like that. And then the other thing is you schedule time and you say like, oh, tomorrow at eight o 'clock, I'm going to sit down and try to write something. And that usually actually works out. It does? That's good. More often than not, that works out for me.

25:06Mark Oliver Everett: Not always, but, you know. And then, you know, once you have a kid, like that becomes increasingly the only way it happens, you know. Yeah. And there's less of that time available, you know.

25:16Blake Howard: Yeah. I mean, I, I'm trying to write things down now. And I'm a person who is kind of averse to journaling and averse to just like, even like a pen and paper. And I'm trying to be okay with just writing things down. And even things that are like, you know, I mean, I talk to my counselor and stuff a lot where it's like, where there's processing grief, you know, it's like, or I kind of have a bit of a self-loathing thing at times where it's like, okay, I'm going to write something down and I'm putting two things down that I'm proud of today. and then I might, you know, I keep journals on records I listen to and like what was going on in my head and, you know, but like, I don't know, do you ever, do you carry like a notebook around?

25:53Blake Howard: Like, are you a writing person?

25:55Mark Oliver Everett: I don't ever journal at all because I am always writing down little ideas on little scraps of paper. Like my house is littered with these little white notepads that I've been, and I've been doing this for like 30 years. And, you know, people come into my house for the first time and they think a mentally ill person lives here you know which is somewhat accurate uh because i have these little notepads all over the place and uh that's where most of the songwriting happens is on these little notepads and uh and i just have piles of you know song ideas or song titles and stuff like that you know it'll happen when i'm driving around too and i'll just stick them in my pocket throw them in the pile when i get home do you ever take

26:37Blake Howard: pictures of it to save it or you just you kind of know where it is when you need it yeah no it's just on paper oh that's crazy that's so cool it's very old school yeah like how big how big are we talking here uh i think they're like three by five inches oh damn that's like that's like real

26:53Mark Oliver Everett: comedian style there too yeah very often when i write a song like you know it starts from the ideas that are on those notepads and then i'll actually write the lyrics out and like each notepad will be a verse, you know, or a chorus. And then there'll be like five notepads laid out and I'm singing along to the five notepads. It's crazy.

27:17Blake Howard: I mean, that's great because it also feels like, you know, I have a few other friends that are musicians and for them, they'll write music and then they basically will sing gibberish and then they'll kind of like write the lyrics.

27:29Mark Oliver Everett: Yeah, I do a lot of that too. That's good, you know, to do the gibberish placeholder and sometimes that starts to form something that, you know, creeps through the gibberish or, you know, it just gives you an idea of like what syllables and what notes you want to fill something into.

27:45Blake Howard: When you're writing some of your songs, you know, oftentimes there's a nice little jab or humor in there. Like, how do you know when a song needs a joke?

27:54Mark Oliver Everett: I don't think I'm very conscious of that. I think it just happens naturally just because, I mean, it's been since since it was the kind of the family i grew up in you know like that was just always there i see it in my son too he just has it naturally he's very funny and um it just comes out natural i don't think like oh i better put something funny in here this is getting to be too much of a bummer which i but i think it's lucky that that occurs because it does you know

28:22Blake Howard: make it less of a bummer sometimes so not too long ago i read um chernot's mark twain biography which is just like i mean it took me a long ass time to read but you know seeing there's kind of like this overlap where like talks about pretty serious stuff but there's also a lot of humor in it and kind of poking fun at these things because it's like you know we're still doing it this way or we're still kind of looking at society this way and i feel like you know i kind of come back to eel songs when there'll be something in there that's pretty heavy and then there's just a just

28:53Mark Oliver Everett: a total joke that's just woven through it yeah i really i don't think there's a lot of thought put

28:58Blake Howard: into it that's that's great i mean uh have you ever like read some of your lyrics after you've done it and then be like oof i'm gonna yank this part out yes oh yeah there's a recent example of

29:09Mark Oliver Everett: that on um there's a song on cookie happened called lost embarking and yeah um there's a part i think it's on the bridge that the original lyric was uh sometimes the only choice is the gun in your hand and i'd recorded it like that and thought i was done but when i would listen to it back it started to bug me that i thought because what i meant by that with the gun in your hand was sometimes the only choice is you got to deal with whatever is in your face right now and i i realized oh some people might take this like i'm advocating suicide or something you know so i went back in and just change that line to sometimes the only choice is the matter at hand, which is saying exactly what I meant to say anyway, so I wish I just came up with that first.

29:58Mark Oliver Everett: Would have been easier.

29:59Blake Howard: I mean, yeah. I mean, cool, but your follow-up on it is where the regrets have had a ton, so many knots left untied, you know, but the line of tried and failed is still tried is like, that hits.

30:11Mark Oliver Everett: Oh, good. I'm glad. I hope so. Because, yeah, that's an important aspect, I think, For us to always remember, you know, well, at least you tried. It's, you know, nothing happens if you don't try and you might fail, but it's not going to be successful either if you don't try.

30:26Blake Howard: Yeah, I mean, and I feel like, too, you know, I'm a person where sometimes, unless I know exactly that I'm going to nail something when I do it, I'm just like, you know, perfectionist, you know, is the whole enemy of progress, sort of.

30:39Mark Oliver Everett: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I get that. And the regrets I've had a ton is my reaction to the song My Way, I think.

30:47Blake Howard: Oh, yeah. I picked that up.

30:49Mark Oliver Everett: Because I've never been a big fan of that song because to me, it always rubs me like, I did it my way, which is not exactly the healthiest way to live your life always. I mean, in some ways, I get it. In terms of my musical career, I could apply that to some degree. at some point I've got everybody off my back and I just do what I want to do for the most part whenever possible. But personally, you know, it's like, well, you know, as adults, you have to compromise.

31:22Blake Howard: Yeah. I mean, I feel like that too. It's in the sense, you know, it's funny because I was in Vegas not too long ago and obviously there's, you know, there's a shrine of Sinatra stuff everywhere. Right. And that song gets played all the time and I hate it because I'm like, man, And that's, I don't want the hits here. I don't want what someone was telling me I had to listen to. So it's like that song has a bit of a stain to it because it's just everybody's favorite sort of Sinatra filler.

31:51Mark Oliver Everett: Yeah, it's not my favorite. Yeah.

31:53Blake Howard: I wanted to talk to you a little bit about your fits, your sort of, you're getting dressed, the vibes you have of when you're performing or when you're writing. Are you still a suit guy? You still wear a lot of suits on stage?

32:05Mark Oliver Everett: Well, our last tour, I wore a cocktail tux. Yeah. And I had several different color jackets that I would change up from night to night. I had seven different colors, actually. That was as close as I get to being Cher.

32:22Blake Howard: Oh, my God. Do you pick out all your own stuff or do you work with a stylist or anything?

32:29Mark Oliver Everett: No, yeah. It's just like me. and usually me and the band kind of brainstorming about like what should we wear this year yeah okay

32:37Blake Howard: when did you realize that you were like into you know what what you were wearing on stage as well

32:42Mark Oliver Everett: as what you were singing i think um i mean i have a couple of long stories that about being influenced as a kid by uh shows that i went to where i realized like how much i enjoyed artists to bring it and put on a good show and uh i realized like oh okay that's what i want to do when if i'm going to play live i don't want to waste anybody's time i want to i want to do my best to really give them a good experience you know and so you know sometimes that includes what

33:12Blake Howard: you're wearing too did you but like did you start to get into it and you know as you're doing that because it sounded like initially you're like well i need to make sure i give everyone their money's worth versus like just being into it for yourself you know it's both because like i want

33:25Mark Oliver Everett: to have fun and it's you know when you're like let's wear track suits that's fun you know we haven't done that you know we're just like that that just seems like so not us so let's do it you

33:33Blake Howard: know yeah yeah i remember i saw you um do a show this was geez ages ago so i think it was probably in new york um and uh you had this like really cool almost like plaid suit on and i was like man i gotta i feel like i gotta wear suits you know i mean i was in a band for a bit and we you know obviously nothing happened, but, uh, I was very influenced by the, uh, sartorial choices of yours.

33:58Mark Oliver Everett: Yeah. Wow. Who knew?

34:00Blake Howard: Yeah. See? Yeah.

34:01Mark Oliver Everett: I mean, I don't wear suits in my day to day life because I just want to be comfortable, you know? Yeah. But, um, yeah, sometimes that's, that's the right thing on stage.

34:12Blake Howard: Yeah. I mean, what's your, do you have any sort of like go-to stuff that you wear? Like just normal day, you know? Yeah. I mean, just, you know, jeans and t-shirts. That's great. I, uh, when I was in Japan, I went, uh, to this place called Koenji, which is kind of the, the vintage neighborhood more or less of, uh, Tokyo. And they had a, uh, store there that was just filled with tons of vintage teas. So there, there's a, there's a more or less company called Safari and they have like seven or eight different types of vintage stores. So they have like, you know, vintage suits or vintage Ralph Lauren or whatever.

34:48Blake Howard: but then there was one that's like street wear and they have a section and it's all band tees and yeah i mean and i found an eels tee there wow um yeah i won't lie i wasn't able to swing for it

35:01Mark Oliver Everett: because i think it was like 200 some odd bucks it's insane how much like old tour shirts go for

35:08Blake Howard: well especially when like they're cool shirts like the you know it was um i actually think it

35:15Mark Oliver Everett: was from shoot nanny i wish i had hung on to all of them like i wish i had put a little stash away

35:20Blake Howard: yeah i was gonna say you can be printing money right now oh well yeah i mean i found an old peter gabriel shirt which i did get and that was i think it was like 60 bucks um but it was from like sledgehammer era you know and on the back it has all the the turkey or all the chickens that are doing like the dance moves um but yeah like do you are there any things that you uh that you ever collect or anything like that?

35:43Mark Oliver Everett: I don't ever wear concert t-shirts because you remember what I told you about the little white notepads. Yeah. My t-shirts have to have a pocket because I have to put my latest scribblings on the notepad paper into my pocket so I don't lose it. So then when I get home, it's there sticking out of my top pocket.

36:07Blake Howard: Oh, interesting.

36:09Mark Oliver Everett: So now you're getting a real picture of how deep the mental illness is running here.

36:15Blake Howard: No, I mean, it sounds like an artist that has convictions. There's a big difference in that. What is your, is there a certain pocket tee that you buy and only buy because it fits?

36:23Mark Oliver Everett: Yeah, currently Gildan, which I believe is also a big maker of the tour merch shirts.

36:32Blake Howard: Yeah, I was going to say, a lot of merch tours these days. I'll get more specific.

36:36Mark Oliver Everett: But the Gildan Ultra Cotton, which I learned the hard way, is different than the Heavy Cotton. Heavy Cotton is lighter. Ultra Cotton is the heavy. It's got to be Pocket Ultra Cotton.

36:49Blake Howard: They're also pre-shrunk as a person who is a fellow Gildan head over here.

36:52Mark Oliver Everett: Are they?

36:53Blake Howard: Yep. Gildan Ultra Cottons are supposedly pre-shrunk.

36:56Mark Oliver Everett: Well, I'm just happy to meet someone more obsessive about it than I am. Yeah.

37:03Blake Howard: Yeah. I mean, the other one, what's it? Is it, uh, do you remember giant, giant T's? They were a lot of merch. Yes. Yeah. Um, yeah. I have an old, uh, Paul Simon shirt and a Paul McCartney shirt and they're all made by giant. Yeah. I probably had some, yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're just excellent. Um, last few questions before we wrap. Do you have like a, a couch guitar?

37:25Mark Oliver Everett: No, I never noodle. I don't, I make it a point to stay away from musical instruments unless less writing or recording, because I wanted to feel as fresh as possible and as different and as exciting. And if I just sat around with a guitar on my hands while I was watching TV, I just, you know, because your hands tend to want to go where they've been before, you know? So I don't want to give them any extra time to get used to places they've been before, you know?

37:56Blake Howard: Was that a decision you made or did you get sort of guidance on that and come to that later.

38:02Mark Oliver Everett: I don't remember. It may have somewhat come about just naturally, like just from the burnout you get from doing it all day and night in the studio. Like, I don't really have a desire to do it anyway, you know, after that.

38:16Blake Howard: Yeah. No, that makes sense. I mean, because you're especially if you're you're playing nonstop. Yeah. Like I just started trying to take lessons again, you know, and I played music for ages and was very, very intense about it. And then I felt like I kind of hit a wall and I was like, I don't know if I'm like actually improving at all. And I, and I kind of want to get better.

38:36Mark Oliver Everett: That's like every language I've tried to learn at some point, I always hit a wall.

38:40Blake Howard: Yeah. Like, I, I mean, do you, do you take lessons with anything?

38:44Mark Oliver Everett: I'm, you know, I've done like the Duolingo stuff and all that. I was really been trying to learn Spanish in the last year or so. And, but I, you know, hit a wall with that too. And that's, you know, not one of the hardest ones to learn, but, uh, I think it's, you know, just too old. You're supposed to do that stuff when you're a kid and you're a sponge, you know?

39:02Blake Howard: Yeah. What about any other ways you try to open up or challenge your brain? I mean, I just started trying to read Shakespeare because I feel like I didn't go to college.

39:12Mark Oliver Everett: That sounds challenging. Right? Yeah.

39:15Blake Howard: It's not very easy. So I'm reading a kind of like, you know, compendium or whatever.

39:21Mark Oliver Everett: They should have like a Duolingo Shakespeare program where you learn the language of Shakespeare.

39:29Blake Howard: Yeah, I mean, all the iambic pentameter stuff, but then just like, what the hell was going on during this time when they were writing it? You know, like, I don't know, a friend of mine thinks Shakespeare was like four people, which I won't even get into that. But like, what, you know, what were the things that were happening? But I feel like, I mean, I just, I'm 41. And so I'm in this thing now where I'm like, I'm scared that I peaked. And I want to find ways to kind of like challenge or enrich myself. And because I don't know, I don't want to like be feeling stuck. And so, yeah, I was like, I'm going to read Shakespeare.

40:05Mark Oliver Everett: Yeah, I'm sure it's good for your brain. That's, you know, the Shakespeare thing seems like a perfect way to keep your brain going.

40:11Blake Howard: Yeah, I don't know. But the other thing, though, which I'm trying to do now is I listen to classical music. Do you ever get into that?

40:17Mark Oliver Everett: Yeah, I mean, I have moments where it's like, you know, I'm doing the Sinatra channel lately, but I'll go through periods where it's classical for the same reason, like just palate cleanser, and it just sounds nice to have on.

40:28Blake Howard: Yeah, I mean, I was like, you know, trying to read about Bach. And I was like, okay, what the hell is going on? Like, why is this, you know, why is there music that essentially people continue to listen to for hundreds of years? Like, what made it significant? But I think there was more of it that it was just like, that was part of the culture,

40:46Mark Oliver Everett: which is one of the bigger conclusions I'm drawing from.

40:49Blake Howard: Yeah. Do you feel like any Eel stuff is going to continue to hold up? Because, I mean, I'm not going to lie to you. Eels, it's everywhere. It's still everywhere, especially Beautiful Freak.

41:00Mark Oliver Everett: I mean, that's what the song All Forgotten on this album is about, is, you know, none of it, none of anything is going to be remembered. I mean, there's going to be a day when the Beatles aren't remembered. Everything's going to be gone. you know, so sorry. I don't know. Did this just turn into a big bummer? Sorry, everybody. No, no.

41:18Blake Howard: I will say, I think that's probably the only thing you've said that I pretty much disagree with because like, okay, when you did, okay, it's 30 years of Beautiful Freak, right? Did you ever, when you recorded that or even 10 years after you do it, felt like people would still be listening to it, you know, 20 years after that 10 years?

41:35Mark Oliver Everett: Well, listen, all I'm saying is with the way things are going with global warming and AI, nothing's going to be around to be remembered probably you know what it's starting to feel

41:45Blake Howard: like so that yeah okay i'll i'll give you that i'll give you that but what's also everybody good night what's also crazy though is is eels is getting recommended from things like chat gpt wow geez well that i don't know what to think about that yeah i'm dead serious to where you know if you look at like okay like somebody talked to me about some of the best bands of you know like records that were super influential in the 90s and so it'll be like here's okay computer here's um you know here's beautiful freak here's this and you know and that's like that's real

42:21Mark Oliver Everett: well i guess maybe at least something good coming out of it um yeah so i mean yeah the bigger thing

42:28Blake Howard: will be going back and making sure your uh your royalties are increased on that first what are the odds but anyway thank you thank you so much for chatting with me about this it was really fun

42:43Mark Oliver Everett: it's nice to do one of these it's not all the usual questions

42:48Blake Howard: thank you again for everything and congrats on the record thanks so much bye

42:55Blake Howard: you've been listening to Blamo if you're looking for something to put on next we've got over 500 episodes in the archive go dig around and I bet there's somebody in there you'd love to hear from. And if you want to help us keep making Blammo and our other shows like Dye Workwear with Derek Guy and the JJJ Show, come join us on Patreon at patreon.com forward slash Blammo. Our show is produced by Blammo Media. We're edited by Amar Law and I'm Jeremy Kirkland. Talk to you next time.